


A Very Distinctive Hitter

by AlannaofRoses



Series: The Pack Long Con [4]
Category: Leverage
Genre: Blood and Injury, Canon-Typical Violence, Episode: s01e12 The First David Job, Episode: s01e13 The Second David Job, M/M, Shifter Eliot, Shifter Quinn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:26:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24015172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlannaofRoses/pseuds/AlannaofRoses
Summary: Eliot and Quinn meet across an airport hanger, but this is far from their first encounter. Both Full Shifters, their lives have been entwined for many years, and their hearts almost as long. But things are changing for them, and Eliot now has more than one important person in his life.
Relationships: Mr. Quinn/Eliot Spencer (Leverage)
Series: The Pack Long Con [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1710754
Comments: 6
Kudos: 66





	A Very Distinctive Hitter

**Author's Note:**

> I have had a lot of trouble with this story. I knew early on that I wanted to tell a Quinn/Eliot tale, but part of the problem with that is its pretty much a blank slate. Of course, that's also half the fun. There are a lot of hints in this about the larger backstory I wove for them over many, many edits and rewrites. (If you've been following me you'll know I posted and deleted this story several times.) To continue following Quinn and Eliot, look for the Very Distinctive stories. I will post them (more or less) in order as dictated by the series itself, with the backstory peppered in as it becomes relevant. Thank you for your patience with this series. Hope you enjoy!

Quinn and Eliot had a long-standing arrangement not to let their personal lives interfere with their work. It was a necessity when your lover was also the other most prominent Shifter hitter in the business.

Full Shifters being as rare as they were, they were in high demand for all sorts of unsavory jobs. Even in human form, their strength, speed, stamina, smell, and hearing were all twenty percent better than the best human equivalent. A Full Shifter could outlast, outrace, and out-track any human, and they had been known to face down incredible odds and come out on top. They weren’t impossible to kill, of course, and those fables about stakes and silver bullets were just that. Any normal bullet would do just fine, if it hit something vital enough.

It was one of the many reasons Eliot hated guns.

Quinn had never developed Eliot’s loathing for firearms, though he too often preferred a good hand-to-hand.

That didn’t make facing him across an airport hangar any less painful.

Not that he’d had time to tell Quinn why everything was different now, why this wasn’t just another job. Why Leverage wasn’t just another crew to him. Why this felt like a betrayal when all the other times hadn’t.

It was a rare day that Quinn could actually beat Eliot, particularly one on one on even footing. But people kept trying to pit them against one another, if only because Quinn was one of the few who stood any chance at all. They’d faced each other on battlefields the world over, and it didn’t matter much when Eliot was retrieving some random object for another rich buyer.

It mattered a whole hell of a lot when Quinn was threatening Eliot’s team.

Eliot snapped out a countdown, the only warning he’d give Quinn.

Quinn struck first, a lightning fast blow to the chin that sent Eliot flying. He’d forgotten how fast the other Shifter was. Eliot wasted precious seconds trying to find his earbud, desperate to warn Nate that things were spiraling out of control. 

Quinn landed a blow, and Eliot heard the distinctive snap in his chest. Quinn’s smile was cocky.

“Now that ribs broken.”

They tussled across the floor. Eliot, slow and wounded, was unable to take the advantage.

But Quinn got a little too cocky. He was fast, for sure, but he always seemed to forget Eliot could take quite the beating.

“Why won’t you go down!” Quinn barked, both of them panting over their knees.

Eliot grinned through a mouthful of blood.

Quinn saw red, rushing him.

Eliot delivered a solid blow straight to Quinn’s chest.

“Now that ribs broken.” He returned.

The fight didn’t last much longer after that, and Eliot didn’t hesitate to knock Quinn out cold.

He fumbled for his ear piece. “Nate, we’re blown… we’re blown!” He warned the older man.

He just had time to hear the concern in the older man’s voice, before they were interrupted.

Sterling.

Sterling had Parker, had Hardison, had sent Quinn after him. Eliot hoped the man had chosen Quinn because he was the best next to Eliot himself, and not as a deliberate threat. Eliot would tear Sterling to pieces if Quinn ended up paying for this.

“Eliot, stay low.” Nate ordered.

Eliot stopped. He hated being helpless to do anything. Hated waiting for the other shoe to drop. But if Nate and Sophie were handling things on their end, and there was nothing to be done for Parker and Hardison right now… Eliot turned around.

Quinn was just stirring as Eliot crouched over the other hitter, wincing as his ribs shifted.

“Damn Eliot.” Quinn groaned. “Didn’t pull any punches, did you.”

Eliot snorted. Neither of them had. It wasn’t their way. He held out a hand. “Up you go, Quinn.”

The other Shifter staggered a bit as he regained his footing, cradling his own savaged ribs. They stood for a moment, close enough their shoulders brushed, both of them weaning off the adrenaline coursing through their veins.

It only took Quinn a few moments to cock his head, studying Eliot closely. “What’s wrong?”

Eliot blew out a breath through his nose. “Got a lot to tell you Quinn.”

Quinn’s nostrils flared, and Eliot knew the other Shifter was scenting the four new essences entwined with Eliot’s own.

“Something is different about this job.” It wasn’t a question.

Eliot laughed humorlessly, running a hand through his hair. “Yeah.” His voice wasn’t quite as steady as he would have liked.

Quinn stepped closer, butting his head against Eliot’s shoulder, a deep rumble coming from inside his chest.

Eliot couldn’t quite help the smile that tugged at the corners of his mouth as he brushed a hand through Quinn’s shaggy auburn hair. “Let’s find someplace to lay low a bit.”

Half an hour later, a massive lion and a lithe cheetah lay curled together, so close it was hard to separate the two animals. The cheetah’s head rested on the lion’s shoulder, the smaller cat still rumbling comfortingly. Occasionally one or the other cat would stir and readjust position as bruises and bones healed themselves faster than any human could dream of, but still not fast enough, Eliot feared.

Whatever Sterling had planned, it wasn’t going to be good. If everything went to hell, Eliot needed to be as close to 100 percent as he could be. Thus being curled up with Quinn, both of them in their Shifted forms, which healed on average five times as fast as their fragile human bodies. It wouldn’t completely fix the ribs, though it would stabilize them enough Eliot wouldn’t puncture a lung if he had to fight again today. It would certainly help the concussion quite a bit.

The concussions were why they had paid a taxi to get them here, giving the driver an address a block and a half away. The short walk had given Eliot just enough time to fill Quinn in on the basics of the last year. He kept the details scarce of course, even trusting Quinn as he did, the chances of too much information falling into the wrong hands was too great to risk it.

The cheetah yawned and stretched, nuzzling Eliot’s shoulder for a moment before the graceful feline form shivered and shrunk. Quinn looked rather tiny leaning against Eliot’s massive bulk. The other man reached out and threaded his fingers into Eliot’s mane, absentmindedly fiddling with the silky strands.

“I’m sorry.”

Eliot huffed.

They had had this conversation, too. Eliot had maintained that Quinn couldn’t have known this job was different. Neither of them had really had a team to worry about before, other than each other. They had never let anyone else get close enough.

“Are they treating you right?” There was enough hesitation in Quinn’s voice to break Eliot’s heart. They’d both been on the wrong side of most crew’s disregard for their hitter. When your literal job was to take the hits everyone else couldn’t, they often forgot you were breakable too. It was one of the reasons Eliot usually worked alone.

Eliot moved away from Quinn just enough to shift, wincing as the change pulled at his barely healing ribs. He sat up, facing the other man, taking the hand that had been playing in his mane and holding it to his heart. “Yeah. Like I said, Leverage is… different. Nate’s got some issues, and it took him awhile to trust me, but Parker, and Hardison, and Sophie… I’m not a thing to them.”

Quinn nodded. “And you’re not…”

“No.” Eliot answered firmly. “If I wanted to leave… well, I’m not sure they’d be happy about it, but they’d let me go if I needed to.”

Some of the tension went out of Quinn.

Eliot would have continued the conversation, but just then, his ear piece crackled to life.

“Eliot?”

Eliot sat up straight, his injuries forgotten. “Nate.”

“Ok, Eliot, we have a plan. I need you to head for the office. I’m texting you the details.”

“Got it.” Eliot stood, reaching for his phone and keys.

“Do you want me to come with you?”

Eliot looked back at Quinn, who was leaning back against the couch, his posture deceptively relaxed. For the other hitter to even offer, knowing what it could cost him, cost them both…

Eliot crossed the room in two strides and knelt in front of Quinn, pressing his mouth against the other Shifter’s in a bruising kiss. “Someday.” He swore against the soft skin. “Someday we’ll be free.”

Quinn laughed, resting his forehead against Eliot’s. “And what will your Nate Ford say then?”

Eliot flashed a predatory grin. “Guess he’ll just have to get used to being outnumbered.”

Eliot kissed Quinn one more time, for luck, and then walked away. He didn’t look back as he drove off. He knew Quinn would be long gone by the time he returned.

Someday, someday, he would get to have his past and his future.

For now, he would save one, and it would have to be enough.

But after; after he saved Nate and Hardison; after Sophie and Parker came in, still flushed from their own escape; after they went their separate ways in the same hanger he and Quinn had fought in just hours before; Eliot went back to the safehouse.

He Shifted, and he curled up on that rug, and he let himself breathe in the five scents now intermingled with his own.

His pack had grown larger than he had ever thought it would.

And he had no idea if he would see any of them again.


End file.
